California - Disaster Hotspot

West America
Along the Pacific coastline
Located on the San Andres Fault Line
Conservative plate
158,706 sq. miles
350 miles East-West
780 miles North-South
Bordered by Oregon (North), Nevada (East) and Arizona (South East)
Sierra Nevada includes the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney at 14,505 ft.
About 45% of the state's total surface area is covered by forests
Part of the 'Ring of Fire'
Southeastern California is arid, hot desert with routine extreme high temperatures in the summer
Earthquakes
1. Large and shallow earthquakes
2. San Andres fault
3. Fairly violent and frequent
4. North American and Pacific plates
  1. Moving in the same direction, but at a different speed
5. Lomo Prieta Earthquake
  1. 17th October 1989
  2. 5:04pm
  3. San Francisco
  4. Magnitude of 7.1 with an aftershock of 5.2
  5. 63 people were killed
  6. 13,757 people were injured
  7. 1,018 homes were destroyed
  8. 23,408 homes damaged
  9. 366 businesses destroyed
  10. 3,530 businesses damaged
  11. Damages reached $6billion
  12. Only light traffic at that time as the 1989 world series baseball championship was just starting in the area
  13. The initial media reports failed to take into account the game's effect on traffic and initially estimated the death toll at 300, which was later corrected to 63
  14. Caused airports to close due to cracks
  15. Railways lost power however no passengers were harmed
  16. Caused enough damage that some parts of the region's freeway system had to be demolished
  17. San Francisco Bay Bridge collapsed sending more than 40 slabs of concrete (600 tons each) onto cars below
  18. The earthquakes shock waves roiled the unstable soil into slush, a process called liquefaction
6. The Northridge Earthquake
  1. 17th January 1994
  2. 4:31am
  3. Los Angeles
  4. Densely populated
  5. 6.7 magnitude
  6. Thousands of aftershocks during the following weeks of magnitudes between 4.0 and 5.0
  7. 57 people killed
  8. 1,500 seriously injured
  9. 12,500 buildings were damaged
  10. 9,000 homes and businesses were without electricity for several days
  11. 20,000 people went without gas
  12. 48,500 people went without water
  13. Numerous fires were caused by broken gas lines
  14. 11 hospitals suffered structural damage and were damaged or unstable after the earthquake
  15. Freeways and major roads were shut due to damaged or collapsed roads
  16. Rail service briefly interrupted
  17. Los Angles international airport was shut
  18. California State University was the only major university near the epicenter and many classes had to be moved due to damaged buildings
7. A 9,2 Earthquake in 1964 led to a devastating tsunami - 6 meter wave killing 11
El Nino
1. River floods
2. Instead of coming ashore in the Pacific Northwest as usual, the southern jet stream hits California, carrying moisture and storms.
3. Increased rainfall
4. Landslides
5. Coastal erosion
6. Not all big flooding takes place in El Nino years
  1. E.g. December 1955 and 1964 , January 1882, February 1986
7. Not all El Nino years produce widespread flooding
8. Increases probability of storms
9. Leads to landslides
10. Trade winds move eastwards across the pacific
11. February 1998 El Nino caused havoc in the San Francisco Bay region
  1. 6ft high water splashed over the city's waterfront
12. Low atmospheric pressure
13. Strong winds
La Nina
1. Droughts
2. Wildfires
3. Warm air
4. Dry air
5. Gusty conditions
6. Exacerbated wildfires throughout the western US on August 24th 2012
7. Northern California was one of the area's most severely affected
8. Most wildfires blazed in remote areas, but the Ponderosa fire has destroyed several homes and threatened hundreds of others
9. By August 24th 2012, The Bagley fire had burned 11,083 acres of land
  1. The Chips fire had burned 63,100 acres of land
  2. The Fort Complex fire had burned 6,683 acres of land
  3. The Ponderosa fire had burned 28,089 acres of land
10. At least 1,500 homes were destroyed overal
11. 9 people died as a result of wildfires in 2007
12. 85 were injured in wildfires including 61 firefighters in 2007
13. Over 6,000 firefighters worked to fight the blaze in 2007
Landslides
1. Glendora
  1. 1 Million cubic meters of rock and mud slid down a hillside
  2. Destroyed 200 homes
  3. Killing dozens of people
2. La Conchita
  1. Prone to mudslides
  2. Sits beneath a geologically unstable formation
  3. March 4th 1995
    1. Buried or damaged 7 homes
    2. No one was injured
  4. January 10th 2005
    1. 12:30pm
    2. Buried four blocks of the town in over 30ft of earth
    3. Ten people were killed
    4. 14 were injured
    5. 15 homes were destroyed and 16 were uninhabitable
Fog famously blankets San Francisco in the Summer when hot inland temperatures create a low-pressure zone over Northern California
The coping capacity is high
Wealthy with per capita incomes of over US$65,000
Its economy is the world's 6th largest - bigger than France and Italy
Population was estimated at 38 million in 2012
Seismic building codes apply to all existing buildings with at least one masonry bearing wall that is not reinforced
After a severe earthquake in 1971, significant enhancements to the building codes pertaining to earthquakes were made.

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California - Disaster Hotspot

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	Created by Jodie Goodacre almost 11 years ago